Law Matters - Assange and cybercrime: should we fear hacking charges?

The Law Matters Seminar Series gives you the opportunity to engage with the critical issues of the day in the field of law.

Our Law School Community encourages critical, innovative and forward-thinking and this series of lectures provides a space for students to broaden their views and discuss the issues that really matter.

Assange and cybercrime: should we fear hacking charges?

The United States have filed an extradition request of Assange, mostly based on cybercrime charges as per the UK Computer Misuse Act 1990 and its American counterpart. This seminar looks, more broadly, at the hacking claims against journalists and whistle-blowers. While the statute aims to provide an effective response to cybercrime threats, I argue that the statute has the unintended effect of criminalising a number of established newsgathering practices involving journalists and their sources, in particular whistle-blowers. Information being now held and circulated mostly in digital format, data leaks constitute data accessed without authorisation, an offence under s1 CMA. And there is no defence available. So is the cybercrime legislation really fit for purpose in the 21st century?